March 10, 1985
by VampireLibrarian
Summary: I was told that I left some people hanging by leaving the story "March 9, 1985" to just ONE chapter, so here's the next day. What happens when Dustin introduces the guys to his secret.


_Shit! It's hotter than Hell out here today!_ Dustin just finished mowing his final yard of the day. He had noticed Bowie watching him mow the backyard through her bedroom window which made him smile through the pain. He turned to see Bowie's dad walking up to him. "Good morning, Mr. Nelson." He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm. "I just finished and I hope you don't mind but I did trim back the hedge in the backyard that was starting to grow into your air conditioning unit. If the branches get into the motor, you would end up paying for a whole new unit."

He smirked behind Mr. Nelson's back as he walked over to look over the fence. Mr. Nelson turned back to him with a pleased look on his face. "Nice job, Henderson." He reached in his wallet and pulled out a $10 adding it to the $10 he already had in his hand to pay Dustin. "Here, you saved me a lot of money and didn't leave a mess." Dustin watched over Mr. Nelson's shoulder as Bowie climbed the fence and motioned for him to join her in the tree house. "Don't spend it all in one place, young man."

Dustin picked up his equipment and put the money in his pocket. "Thank you very much, Mr. Nelson. Now if you don't mind, the shower is calling my name." He walked slowly to his house until he was sure that Mr. Nelson had turned to go back in his house. He dropped all of his stuff in the garage and closed the big door running through to the backyard. He could see her legs swinging from the doorway of the tree house. "Can I come up?" He called to her as she looked down and smiled.

"No," she jumped down and landed a few feet in front of him. "I'll come down to you." She walked up and gave him a little kiss on the lips. "You are a sweaty mess, Mr. Henderson. I like a hard working man." She giggled as he posed for her.

"I'm meeting up with the guys in about an hour. You still game to go and introduce yourself as my official girlfriend?" He was so scared about this but he needed to act cool in front of her.

Bowie smiled at Dustin and sighed. "UGH! I have to go with my mom to this mother/daughter lunch thing. We leave in 30 minutes but I should be back by 2. Will you still be there? I can meet you after I change out of the awful dress she is making me wear." She batted her eyes at him but he was not going to tell her that he was a little relieved that she wouldn't be walking into the arcade with him. This would actually give him a chance to feel the guys' moods out before she showed up.

"Yeah, we'll still be there. At 2:30, I'll make sure that I'm at the PacMan machine. Just walk in and find me there. I'll be the one in the baseball hat." He smiled as she just shook her head at him.

"Sounds like a plan, Henderson." She kissed him again, pulled away, and smiled at him. "I think we both need to go get ready for today. I'll see you at 2:30." He watched her hop over the fence and smiled. _She's going to meet me at the arcade and all the guys are going to know that Dustin Henderson has a girlfriend._ He whistled as he walked into the house to take his shower and get ready to meet the guys at the arcade.

"Dustin, you can keep trying but that high score will never be yours again," Max said cackling like the Evil Queen from the Disney movies as she played the game next him. He was feveredly was trying to defeat the last level of Dig Dug.

"SHIT!" He slammed the machine as he looked at his score.

Max and Lucas laughed as they looked over at the screen. "You missed it by that much, Henderson." Lucas said as he hugged Max.

Dustin shot him the finger. "Whatever! Hey," he noticed he had forgotten his watch. "What time is it?"

"2:25. Why you got a hot date?" Lucas asked.

"Maybe...I gotta get to Pacman." He ran past Lucas and Max who just stared at him dumbfoundedly. When he got there, he found Mike trying to teach El how to play it. Really what was going on was El was giggling as Mike was trying to reach around her and do the controls for her. "Hey, I get next and it looks like ya'll are done anyway so…"

"He's teaching me how to play this, Dustin. Give us a minute." El said as she smiled at him.

Dustin looked at Mike's watch. "Ok you have three minutes, then I really need to be on there."

"You could just be near it like you are now because I still found you." He turned to see Bowie standing there. She looked beautiful just a touch of makeup on that made her lavender eyes stand out even more, her raven hair was curled and pinned up, and she had on some worn out jeans, Converse high tops and a Prince shirt. He had never really seen her in anything that was this relaxed before with a smile on her face that was all for him. "You didn't say you would be PLAYING Pacman just that you would be the one with the baseball hat AT Pacman." She walked up to him, took the hat off his head, and kissed him in the middle of the arcade. The kiss made him start to funnel everything in the room out and the whole arcade started to melt away leaving just them in the room. He could hear his friends gasp and whisper, then the sound of Pacman dying, and finally he just heard their breathing. He felt her free hand get into his wild curls and tangle them around her fingers and his hands wrapped around her waist pulling her in as close as he could get her.

Once they broke their kiss, he looked around to see all of his friends standing there, staring at them with their mouths hanging open shocked at what was going on right in front of their eyes. "Ok, so guys this is Bowie," he looked at her and smiled, "my girlfriend. Bowie, these are my friends from school." He started to point them out as he introduced them. "Mike and El, Lucas and Max, and Will."

She smiled at them and put her hand out. "It's so nice to finally meet you all." She shook Mike, Lucas, and Will's hands, calling each one by name and giving each one a big smile. She insisted on hugging El and Max telling each one of them how beautiful they were. "I have heard so much about you all."

Max finally said, "Well, we have heard NOTHING about you! Where did you come from?"

Bowie looked at Dustin first. "I live next door to Dustin. We met when he caught me sneaking into his tree house to escape reality for a minute." She paused to smile at him. "He brought me a soda and ask what I was doing in his tree house. That first day I think we talked for 3 hours just about everything that we couldn't tell to anyone else. It was honestly the most relaxing day I have had in months since we moved here." She reached over and grabbed his hand. She noticed that his friends looked at each other when she said that he shared things with her that he couldn't share with them. "Don't worry! No big secrets or evil plots against any of you. He just feels sometimes like a major third wheel and needed to get that off his chest. I had major issues I needed to get off my chest. The relationship grew from that."

"So you sneak off to meet each other in the tree house whenever you can and today you decide to make it public?" Will asked. He looked at the others still standing with shocked looks on their faces. "I mean what the actual fuck, lady?" The shocked faces then turned to him. "What? I'm friends with Dustin and his potty mouth. It was only a matter of time before one of us started to swear like him too."

Bowie squeezed Dustin's hand. "I guess I felt like I needed to show him that I'm only his and not the guy my dad WANTS me to hang out with." She turned to look at Dustin and put her arms around his neck smiling at him. "I am Dustin Henderson's girlfriend." She pulled him closer and looked into his eyes smiling. "And I'm DAMN proud of it." He pulled her into the kiss this time.

He hugged her tight when they broke the kiss and whispered "Thank you" into her ear.

She whispered back. "No need to thank me. I meant every word." They let go of each other and turned to the growing crowd watching them. "Ok, everyone else, nothing left to see here. Mind your own!" She barked at the stragglers who joined the friends. She smiled at the couples and Will. "I don't know about you but I could really go for some pizza. Max, El, what do you think?"

Max looked at her and nodded. "I could go for a pizza. El?"

Eleven looked at both of the girls and smiled. "Yes, I think pizza sounds great. We could all talk and learn more about you." The boys still stood there not saying a thing about what just happened.

Bowie grabbed Dustin's hand smiling. "I would love that!" She stopped and looked at the boys. "Do you have anything at all to say? Or are you just going to stand there staring at me?"

Will finally cracked a smile. "I'm trying to figure out if you're real," the other two guys nodded in agreement. "But to be honest I think we're all glad you're here and we would like to get to know you."


End file.
